Incidents caused by improperly and/or otherwise inaccurately located utility lines have resulted in loss of human life as well as costly damage to infrastructure. In a traditional utility line locating operation (also referred to as a “locate” for brevity), a user moves about a locate area with a portable utility locator to detect magnetic field signals resulting from current flow in the utilities. The signals may be coupled to the utility via a corresponding utility locating system transmitter device (also denoted herein as a “transmitter” for brevity) or, in some cases, currents may flow within the utilities inherently (e.g., in an AC power system, or the current may be coupled to the utility from other sources).
Detection and processing of the magnetic field signals may be used to determine the position of the utility below the ground surface as well as other information such as utility depth and current flow. Typical utility locating systems fail to provide additional useful information beyond basic positional locating (relative to the locator device) such as the type of utility (in environments where there are multiple utilities or other conductors present). Some locating support communication between various system devices to provide more accurate and/or efficient utility locating by sharing information, such as between a locator and a transmitter. However, even in existing systems and devices with inter-communication capabilities, communications and data transfer are often inefficient, limited in information carrying capability, or otherwise lacking.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to address the above-described as well as other problems.